Can you feel it? This mass fear that’s in the collective right now? And it’s spreading like wildfire. For anyone who’s just the slightest bit sensitive to energies, going outside can feel different these days. You might get this intense feeling of overwhelm or anxiety. Perhaps a sense of sadness too.
Yesterday I went to several stores to buy paracetamol, for my broken toe that still hurts. It was 6PM, so shops were closing already. But people were frantically buying literally everything they could get their hands on in 1 store I went to. As if they are preparing for some sort of war. Panic buying. Soap, hand sanitiser, alcoholic wipes, medicine. My god, the fight over paracetamol is insane. While I was standing in line to pay for my Advil (which was not sold out, thankfully), people were talking about their own hoarding of goods. Lots of anxious talk about what’s to come.
Then today we went to do grocery shopping, just as we always do on Friday morning. Driving up to the parking lot, I realised that it was going to be madness in the store.And I was right. Absolute madness! Normally on Friday morning (before 10AM) it’s actually pretty relaxed in the supermarkets. Not too many people, just the regulars like myself. For doing groceries, I find that a pretty enjoyable moment. Today however, my brain went into some sort of panic attack. Complete mental override. Couldn’t think straight anymore, couldn’t figure out what I needed to get and forgot some essentials for 1 dish I was about to make. Why? Because there was so many people in there, all piling up goods in their carts as if WWIII had started and this was the absolute last chance to ever buy food. Man, it was insane! People buying piles of pasta, rice, toilet paper (yup, in the Netherlands this now seems to be a cure for the Coronavirus too). There was even people stocking up their carts with bottled water. Now let me tell you this: Tap water in the Netherlands is amongst the cleanest and best you can find in the entire world. Everyone drinks water from the tap here. Everyone. Now, unless this virus has suddenly moved over onto our water system, there’s no need to stock up on bottled water. Anyhow, I will try to steer clear from supermarkets as best as I can. All because the energy in there is not okay! It’s dense, heavy, dark. I could feel the fear of others. This intense stress and anxiety, almost as if we’re at the start of an apocalypse.
How about you? How do YOU feel when going outside, these days? Keep a close eye on how it’s making you feel and make your choices based on that. What do you want to feel? What do you want to surround yourself with? What is best for you?
There’s a couple of things to keep in mind right now:
Don’t panic
There’s no use in panicking! It doesn’t make the situation better and it sure as hell doesn’t help you. Don’t give in to the mass panic or fear, just choose to be a beacon of light and positivity. Do some energy work on yourself by transmuting heavy energies. Connect with your Higher Self for guidance. Do a Pillar of Light meditation. Or simply just smile and feel how it changes your mood instantly. Fear lowers your own energetic frequency (your vibration). It lowers your immune system and makes you more susceptible for any kind of virus.
Clear your mind.
With your mind being fogged up by what the media tells you or with the actions of others, your mind can easily become stuffed up with things that aren’t right for you. A clear mind makes you able to process things better, to see the truth of what’s going on, and to help you make better choices.
Take action.
Do whatever is good for you and your family. Keep yourself safe and healthy, make sure you have food at home. But don’t buy into the panic and and don’t go out there for some panic buying. There’s more than enough food for everyone, if we all behave like normal human beings. Aside from that, be mindful of your basic hygiene practice. It’s just odd to see how people are suddenly freaking out about washing their hands or using hand sanitiser, while this should actually be a normal practice every day. Not just with this virus outbreak.
But what about this COVID-19 virus then?
I’ve been drawn to this in a very weird and specific way, for quite some time now. There’s something about it, that makes me interested in keeping a close eye on the entire world and the development of the coronavirus. That’s also the reason why I have been following various “not approved” and in a very specific country “illegal” media outlets. Is this virus a big cover-up? Is this virus even real? Is this virus man-made? And has it even been purposefully unleashed, for whatever reason (and I’ve come across plenty of those stories, TBH)? I don’t know. I really don’t know the truth behind it and will never say it’s either this or that, since there’s too much unknown at this moment.
What I do know, is that it affects the lungs. For healthy people this might not be extremely bad and you’ll recover quickly, but for the less healthy people with a weaker immune system this virus isn’t good news. And there’s a lot of people with a weaker immune system.
So now you might start wondering….
How to Boost Your Immune System during the coronavirus?
Taking care of your immune system should be the first thing to look at. I’ve put more thought into this for my family, since the first mentions of this virus when it was still only in Wuhan China. Your immune system is the one thing that aids with preventing viruses to stay alive in your body. A healthy immune system fights those bacteria and viruses out of your body. A weaker immune system on the other hand, is not always that capable of doing so correctly. While the following suggestions are not ways to PREVENT you from contracting the virus, they are easy ways to keep yourself as HEALTHY as possible.
Sleep
As I always mention during my live streams on Twitch, my guided meditations and my work with clients, sleep is extremely important. And it’s underrated too. Sleep allows for your body to regenerate its cells. Without sufficient sleep, your body is unable to heal the physical cells of your body, as well as it’s unable to process emotions and energies within you. Without sufficient sleep, your body makes fewer cytokines – a type of protein that targets infection and inflammation – effectively creating an immune response. Lack of sleep (or even sleep deprivation) has huge effects on your physical and mental self. It not only causes for your immune system to be lowered, but also causes for you to not be able to make clear decisions. It causes hormonal imbalance and gives a boost to stress hormones (cortisol). It affects your memory, normal brain functioning and metabolism. You make less healthy food and exercise choices, which then tends to make you feel bad about those snacks you just had or skipping a workout.
Having difficulties falling asleep? Why not try a quick and easy breathing exercise? Make sure your pre-sleep ritual is one where you disconnect from distractions like TV, gaming, or sports. Those actually keep you awake, because it keeps your brain busy. The moment these distractions are no longer there, it’s easier for you to relax and let your brain relax too. Lay down in bed, make sure your warm enough (but not too warm), close your eyes and focus on your breath. Breathing in for 4 counts, hold it for 4, and then breathe out for 4 counts. Focus on the breathing, focus on the counting. The moment thoughts appear in your mind, simply guide yourself back to breathing and counting. Allow for your body to start feeling heavy. Feel the sensations of your body relaxing, while you focus on breathing deeply and consciously. You’ll soon notice a deep sense of relaxation coming over you, and soon after you’ll fall asleep.
Breathing
It might sound as the most insane thing, by adding “breathing” to the list of things you can do to boost your immune system. But in fact, it’s not. We all breathe, otherwise we wouldn’t be alive. But have you ever been taught how to properly breathe? And that there’s various ways of breathing? And that each breathing technique has a different result? You can breathe quickly and induce a trance state (breath of fire, kundalini yoga), you can breathe slowly and consciously to induce relaxation. There’s breathing with the upper part of your body, and there’s breathing with the lower part of your body. Being in a stressed state of mind makes you breathe from the upper parts, which is an extremely shallow way of breathing. This can then go on to cause tension in your chest and neck area.
Now have a look at your own breathing. Is it shallow or deep? In case it does NOT come from your belly (meaning that your belly does NOT move inwards and outwards when you breathe), your breathe is shallow. The proper way to breathe, is to make sure the belly moves inwards on each outbreath as you empty your lungs. And on the inbreath, your belly should expand as your lungs fill up with fresh air. So just take a moment to focus on your breath. Take a good deep breath in now and relax. Feel your body relax, as you change the way you breathe.
Now, unfortunately this virus goes straight to your lung area. In my case with asthma, it happens to be lungs that are already trying extra hard to provide me with oxygen. A few months ago – before all this happened – I purchased a bottle of pills based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (hilarious, right?!). I wanted to quit using Western inhalers, since I truly believe it can’t be good to use that much heavy stuff. This stuff which is called ClearLungs by Ridgecrest has been an absolute lifesaver! In times that I was having a bit of a difficulty breathing, I took 2 of these pills and an hour later it seriously started to get better with my breathing. I kid you not. For me, it’s perfect since I don’t like taking actual medicine when it’s not needed (or when something natural works just fine too). I even bought a second bottle at iHerb.com, since I will keep using this. Use the Reward Code BBV7996 upon checkout and you’ll receive 5% discount too.
Meditation or mindfulness
As mentioned before, stress (or fear or panic) causes for a hormonal disbalance as it release more cortisol. Too much cortisol causes an inflammatory response within the body and leaves you more vulnerable to infections and disease. Release your stress by practising mindfulness, an ancient of getting yourself out of your head and into the present moment. Do some slow-moving yoga, with which you also focus on being present in the here and now, as well as properly breathing. I personally love Yoga with Adriene on Youtube! And don’t forget about meditation while you’re at it. A perfect way for you to focus on breathing slowly and deeply, while relaxing body and mind. Multiple times a week, I host live meditation sessions (with ASMR and oftentimes reiki healing too). You can find the recorded ones on my Youtube channel, or simply listen to a track I made with relaxing ocean sounds.
Diet
How aware are you of how (un)healthy your diet really is? Is your diet adding to your health or making you sick? Simple question, right?! Food (and drinks) are directly related to your gut health and therefore your immune system. Whenever you’re looking at giving your immune systems a boost, look a improving the amount of good bacteria in your gut. These help your body kill the bad bacteria, leaving you with more energy and better overall health.
Simply start by adding in more whole, unprocessed foods to your diet. Just eat your damn veggies and fruit! Skip the pre-made sauces or marinades, and just make it from scratch. It also tastes a lot better, to be honest. Take a step further by eating less refined sugars. Mind you, refined sugars can be found in many of our normal foods so it does require you to start looking at your food differently. Repopulate the good bacteria in your gut, by taking pro-biotics in pill form or by eating more fermented foods such as sauerkraut and kimchi. Or drink fermented drinks such as kombucha or kefir milk. I always make our own kefir milk or fermented milk, based on freeze dried kefir cultures. A delicious and healthy drink, that’s also called “the champagne of milk”, thanks to the amazing tingly bubbles that are present in kefir milk.
In addition to all of that, you might want to add some vitamins to your diet to give your immune system an even bigger boost. With all my reading and research from media and interviews with those in China, 1 thing keeps coming back: vitamin C! With a regular diet, our vitamin C intake is not enough to give your immune system a decent boost. To help your body fight off viruses and bacteria, you actually need a really high dosage of vitamin C. Normal store bought pills have a low mg of vitamins in it (for kids it’s often 70mg), but with lots of sugar in it.
Look for the ones with a higher dosage in it, such as 500mg or even 1000mg. An adult male of around 70kg should have a daily dosage of 2000-4000mg of vitamin C. In normal situations! A child could be given a daily dosage of 1000-2000mg. That’s a whole different number than the ‘vitamins’ that you can buy in the supermarket, right?!
In case you feel sick (covid-19, a regular cold or flu), you could scale this up by taking 1000mg every hour. Keep on doing so until your intestines start acting up (perhaps even a bit of diarrhoea). Then it’s time to stop the intake of vitamin C for that day, since you’ve hit the max your body can take. The next day, you start this process all over again, and again, until you start feeling better. The better you feel, the less you can now take and slowly go back to a normal intake of 2000-4000mg per day. Oh, and simply eating more oranges each day will not be sufficient since there’s only 50 to 100mg of vitamin C per orange…
Mindset
Last but not least; your mind is an incredibly powerful tool that can either HELP you in this process or DESTRUCT you. As said before, panic or fear lowers your frequency, increases your stress levels, increases cortisol levels and lowers your immune system. A positive mindset on the other hand, could help you in steering clear from all of this. I know, there’s so much panic going on right now that it feels as if we are literally and constantly surrounded by it. But don’t forget that YOU are in charge of what happens in your own mind. You are responsible for your own physical and mental health. You are in control here.
So despite all the heavy and dense energies right now, choose to focus on the good ones too. There’s a lot of good stuff happening too. There’s people helping older people do groceries, others help those who work in hospitals by taking care of their kids, others are spreading positive messages online. There’s so much good and positive to be seen! Why not try to incorporate a “gratitude-moment”, each and every day? A peaceful moment where you (alone or perhaps together with others) come up with 10 things that you are really thankful for today? Or simply take a look outside and try to spot a gorgeous piece of nature? Flowers starting to bloom, birds chirping, the sunshine or a gorgeous but hefty hailstorm?
And as the quarantine or lockdown in each country tightens, we are forced to move inwards. Staying in our own homes, in our own safe bubble. Some see this as taking away freedom, whilst I’d prefer to see it as keeping me and my family safe. But this lockdown is also a gorgeous time to look within yourself. Take your time to journal on what’s going on in your mind. Allow for the shadow parts to surface and work your way through it. You’ve got the time for it now, so why not make use of it? Experiencing certain fears? Perhaps fear of dying, or fear of becoming sick? Ask yourself the tough questions. Ask yourself why you have these fears. Dig deeper and deeper, until you find out exactly why you’re feeling a certain way. Your answers might surprise you, and they sure as hell will shift a lot within you.
And don’t forget:
Keep on smiling! A smile is extremely powerful. Smiling not only makes you feel good, thanks to the release of feel-good hormones when smiling. But it also has a great effect on those who see you smiling. A smile is contagious. When you smile, others will smile back at you. Try it yourself and see how amazing this is. You can always choose to smile, even when you really don’t feel like it. Just do it anyway and feel the change within you. And the bigger your smile, the more you’ll notice others responding to it. It’s like giving away free medicine, because now your smile has made someone else smile and therefore feel good too. So much goodness in a smile!
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